BRITURN: What Does Labour’s Victory Mean for Brexit?
- ayouthviewpoint
- Oct 21, 2024
- 5 min read
By Javier Estremera
After the Labour Party's landslide victory in the British election, many began to question how the relations with the European Union might change. Will the Labour Party work towards rejoining the EU? What are their future plans to strengthen Anglo-European relations?
On January 31st 2020, at exactly 7:00PM, the United Kingdom officially withdrew itself from the European Union. Following a political dominance from the TORY party, Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed the official removal of the UK from the European customs Union and their single market. Since then, economic instability has permeated the country. Following Britain's exit, economic relations continued to sour between both sides; therefore, constructing harsher trade barriers. Varying currency rates, agricultural inspections, member state trade between EU rather than the UK, and countless other economic policies have defined economic borders between both entities.
But Firstly, why did the United Kingdom leave the European Union? The first signs that the United Kingdom was considering leaving the customs union began during the 9 year dominance of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron. The initial causes for British exit from the European Union originates from Euroskepticism, a political ideology which believes in their countries disengagement and exclusion from the European Union. The growth of this ideology originates from the idea that the European powerhouses, like France and Germany, control the lower member states and these smaller states don’t truly represent their citizens. The most prominent euroskeptic is Victor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, who has collaborated with other European political leaders across member states to form a eurosceptic coalition. Britain's actions towards leaving the European Union were the big push that has sparked the rapid increase of Euroskepticism in the region. However, it wasn’t until the end of David Camerons’ dominance on June 23, 2016 that the BREXIT referendum was announced which resulted in a narrow victory with only 52%. Afterwards, it took the Tory party another 4 years just for the official declaration to be signed.
After BREXIT (the term used for Britain's Exit of the EU), the TORY party would be in a spiraling decline due to horrible misplays and political disarray. Firstly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign after reports came out related to countless violations of COVID-19 standards and heavy partying from him and his cabinet. Even though he was able to survive the vote of no confidence, pressure from his party made him step down. His successor Elizabeth Truss, would prove to be an even bigger hit to the political party’s reputation after her resignation only 49 days after being put to power. This action came due to her incapability to resolve the economic issues and due her controversial selection of her cabinet. While selecting who would assist Truss in her position, she refused to place anyone that wasn’t aligned with her campaign. Choosing allegiance over effectiveness, which didn’t sit right with the people. This, alongside the fact that her policies were in no way aligned with the party’s true vision inevitably, led to her downfall. Following the horrendous catastrophe that was Elizabeth Truss' governance, Rishi Sunak was tasked with rebuilding both the nation and the Tory party as a whole. In the end the little to no time that he was given with the position he was given would be too much for him to salvage. This inability to save the party's image would lead to their downfall in the 2024 election.
Since the Labour Party's landslide of a victory winning 411/655 (more than 70%) seats in the House of Commons, concerns over Keir Starmer's goals towards rejoining the EU have grown. Various Britons have spoken in fear that Starmer will revert all of the TORIES progress towards excluding themselves from the market. However, in the Labour Parties 2024 Manifesto Keir Starmer never talks about reintegrating Britain into the EU. Instead, his goals have been primarily focused on maintaining the UK as its separate entity while strengthening its relationships with the rest of Europe both economically and militarily. According to the 2024 Labour Party Manifesto : “We will seek anew security agreement with the EU to ensure access to real-time intelligence and enable our policing teams to lead joint investigations with their European counterparts.” Through NATO both the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe have already established friendly defense relations and Starmer plans on extending this friendly relationship into a more cohesive security pact between both entities outside its coalition. Not only does Starmer wish to collaborate in military operations, but also wishes to join the EU’s wider joint security pact encompassing areas like illegal immigration, climate crisis, and energy. However, discussions between the UK and EU have not been easy.
On October 2nd, 2024, Keir Starmer met with European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen to properly discuss possible economic agreements. These discussions would prove to be tougher than expected as the United Kingdom could not agree on key details. Firstly, discussions related to facilitating EU residency in Britain and youth mobility have been rather difficult as the UK still wants to maintain
heavy control over its population and immigration. On the other hand, the EU places heavy emphasis on economic mobility across its borders, a disagreement that has hampered further success for collaboration.
Now, what does this truly mean for the future between the UK and the European Union? Will the Labour Party truly be able to achieve its goals of repairing relations that the Conservative Party worked so hard to destroy? Yes, there is a high chance that the Labour Party can effectively repair the damage done in the 13 year span especially with their immense dominance over the House of Commons. Now, can the party do all of these changes in a 4 year span? No, even with the political dominance that the Labour Party gained
in the House of Commons it will still take them a considerable amount of time to truly repair all of the damage made by the Tory Party. This, along with European skepticism on how committed Keir Starmer truly is in fixing the damage, will definitely slow down the negotiation process. However, with Keir Starmer's recent actions since winning the general election, signs of commitment are shown. While all of these promises may seem as wishful thinking, there is a heavy chance that progress will be made as time goes on.
Sources:
Change Labour Party Manifesto 2024
Labour hopes to deepen economic ties with Europe outside EU’s structures | Foreign policy | The Guardian
Why did Boris Johnson resign?
How 14 years of Conservative government have changed Britain - The Washington Post
UK's Boris Johnson and the 'partygate' scandal | Reuters
Keir Starmer: No case for going back into EU
UK seeks ‘regular’ EU meetings to rebuild post-Brexit relations
Britain’s Starmer in Brussels for talks on EU reset | Brexit News | Al Jazeera https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brexit
Brexit timeline: events leading to the UK’s exit from the European Union - House of Commons LibraryHow
14 years of Conservative government have changed Britain - The Washington Post Euroskepticism | Brexit, Immigration & Sovereignty | Britannica
UK Government hosts EPC Summit at Blenheim Palace | 18/07/20... | Flickr
Prime Minister Keir Starmer holds first press conference | Flickr
Briturn of the Mack